Difference between revisions of "Team:Macquarie Australia/ProjectOverview"

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<h2>Project Description</h2>
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<br>
<h4>The Looming Energy Crisis</h4>
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<h2>Project Overview</h2>
<p>The global population currently faces a looming energy crisis<sup>1,2</sup>.
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Fossil fuels - the traditional sources of energy used to facilitate human civilisation - are dwindling in supply<sup>1</sup>.
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Therefore, alternative energy sources must be discovered and developed in order to achieve future energy security.</p>
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        <h4>Attempted Solutions</h4>
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<p>There are three main components in our project this year:</p>
<p>Renewable energy technologies which indirectly harness the power of the sun - such as wind and wave power - are currently utilised across the world in varying degrees<sup>2,3</sup>.
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<ul>
It is also increasingly popular to directly harness solar power by converting light energy to electrical energy in solar cells<sup>3</sup>.
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<li><b>Chlorophyll Biosynthesis Pathway</b></li>
However, there are issues associated with the implementation of this technology such as the energy-expensive nature of solar cell and battery construction and maintenance.</p>
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<ul>
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<li>By expressing 4 operons the protoporphyrin-IX molecule can be transformed into chlorophyll-<i>a</i>.</li>
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<li>Protoporphyrin-IX is present within <i>E. coli</i> and is typically used to make a different tetrapyrrole: heme.</li>
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</ul>
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<li><b>Photosystem II</b></li>
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<ul>
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<li>Through the expression of 5 operons we aim to induce <i>E. coli</i> to build the Photosystem II protein complex which contains the Oxygen Evolving Centre of photosynthesis.</li>
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</ul>
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<li><b>Hydrogenase</b></li>
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<ul>
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<li>A hydrogenase enzyme can take two protons and two electrons to build H<sub>2</sub> (molecular hydrogen).</li>
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</ul>
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</ul>
  
        <h4>Photosynthesis - Nature’s Answer to the Problem</h4>
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<br>
<p>It's well known that photosynthesis is nature's own way of converting light energy from the sun into chemical energy in the form of glucose.
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The goal of Macquarie University's 2015 iGEM team - the Solar Synthesisers - is to utilise the solar-harnessing powers of chlorophyll and photosystem II in order to produce an environmentally friendly and renewable source of chemical energy, namely hydrogen gas.
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When combusted hydrogen gas produces only water and energy - this is highly desirable from an environmental perspective<sup>4</sup>.</p>
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<h4>The Solar Synthesisers’ Project</h4>
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<p>To achieve this goal we're building on the work of last year's Macquarie University iGEM team by transforming <i>E. coli</i> with the genes required to complete the <a class="regularHyperlink" href="https://2015.igem.org/Team:Macquarie_Australia/Notebook1CBP">chlorophyll biosynthesis pathway</a> and create <a class="regularHyperlink" href="https://2015.igem.org/Team:Macquarie_Australia/Notebook2PSB">photosystem II</a> in this bacterial species.
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<figure class="specialInline"><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/9/98/MqAust_ProjectDesign_CBP.png" width="860px" alt="Chlorophyll Biosynthesis Pathway diagram"></figure>
These systems will allow for the use of solar energy to split water into positively-charged hydrogen ions, electrons, and oxygen.
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Our next goal is then to combine the hydrogen ions and electrons produced in this hydrolytic process in a hydrogenase enzyme complex in order to produce <a class="regularHyperlink" href="https://2015.igem.org/Team:Macquarie_Australia/Practices/Implementation">hydrogen gas on an industrial scale</a>.
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Hence in order to produce a renewable and environmentally-friendly source of energy we present the Solar Synthesisers’ 3 step plan: <b>Capture</b>, <b>Transfer</b> and <b>Synthesise</b>!</p>
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<figure class="specialInline"><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/1/14/MqAust_ProjectDesign_PSB.png" width="860px" alt="Photosystem II diagram"></figure>
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<figure><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/8/80/MqAust_ProjectDescAllDiagrams.png" width="880px" alt="Project Overview diagram"></figure>
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<figure class="specialInline"><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/5/58/MqAust_ProjectDesign_HydA.png" width="860px" alt="Hydrogenase diagram"></figure>
 
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<h5>Capture</h5>
 
<p>In order to capture light energy from the sun we aim to use chlorophyll pigment to capture photons.
 
We aim to transform and express within <i>E. coli</i> the 13 genes required to complete the chlorophyll synthesis pathway in this species.</p>
 
 
<h5>Transfer</h5>
 
<p>In photosystem II the energy captured by the chlorophylls is used to split water into protons, electrons, and molecular oxygen.</p>
 
 
<h5>Synthesise</h5>
 
<p>The next step is the combination of two protons and two electrons in a hydrogenase enzyme complex to synthesise hydrogen gas.
 
The commercially-viable production of industrial quantities of hydrogen gas will represent the successful completion of our project.</p>
 
 
        <h4>What is new from last year?</h4>
 
<p>First, we are all new to iGEM!! The full team was only assembled at the end of July 2015, as a capstone class for our Biomolecular sciences major (link to team page and Louise's article in PDF format).
 
We completed the genes within the Chlorophyll biosynthesis pathway. (link to results)
 
We started, and constructed 14 out of the 17 Photosystem-II genes into biobricks (link to PSII result).
 
        We modelled the conversion of ALA to PPIX in <i>E. coli</i>, and the production of hydrogen gas using PSII (link to modelling)</p>
 
 
        <h4>Experimental Organism - Why <i>E. coli</i>?</h4>
 
<p>Rather than engineering a naturally-photosynthetic organism and individually targeting genes in a pathway, we chose <i>E. coli</i> as our experimental host so we could engineer an entire novel metabolic pathway of our own design.
 
Using <i>E. coli</i> as our host allowed us to incorporate the somewhat large and complex chlorophyll-a biosynthesis pathway, comprising 13 genes, as well as all 17 genes comprising PSII. Incorporation of both pathways in the robust and fast-growing <i>E. coli</i> host provides us with a valuable tool with ‘plug-and-play’ capabilities that allow for further future downstream potentials such as re-engineering the pathway to produce other members of the chlorophyll family.
 
 
        </p>
 
 
<h4>References</h4>
 
<ol>
 
<li>Armaroli, N. & Balzani, V. (2011). The hydrogen issue. <i>ChemSusChem</i>, 4, 21–36.</li>
 
<li>Kessel, D.G. (2000). Global warming: facts, assessment, countermeasures. <i>Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering</i>, 26, 157–168.</li>
 
<li>Ellabban, O., Abu-Rub, H. & Blaabjerg, F. (2014). Renewable energy resources: current status, future prospects and their enabling technology. <i>Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews</i>, 39, 748–764. doi:10.1016/j.rser.2014.07.113.</li>
 
<li>Altork, L.N. & Busby, J. R. (2010). Hydrogen fuel cells: part of the solution. <i>Technology and Engineering Teacher</i>, 70(2), 22-27.</li>
 
</ol>
 
  
 
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Latest revision as of 12:08, 19 November 2015

Project Overview
Project page
Link to Project Description page
Link to Experiments & Protocols page
Link to Results page
Link to Notebook page
Link to Safety page

Project Overview

There are three main components in our project this year:

  • Chlorophyll Biosynthesis Pathway
    • By expressing 4 operons the protoporphyrin-IX molecule can be transformed into chlorophyll-a.
    • Protoporphyrin-IX is present within E. coli and is typically used to make a different tetrapyrrole: heme.
  • Photosystem II
    • Through the expression of 5 operons we aim to induce E. coli to build the Photosystem II protein complex which contains the Oxygen Evolving Centre of photosynthesis.
  • Hydrogenase
    • A hydrogenase enzyme can take two protons and two electrons to build H2 (molecular hydrogen).

Chlorophyll Biosynthesis Pathway diagram

Photosystem II diagram
Hydrogenase diagram